2024 Softball Season Wrap

23 Oct, 2024

Note: I felt a little lazy, so I designed the stats tables using Word and saved as an HTML file, and copied that code. As a result the source for these tables is quite messy. Please don't look at it.

As of today, the 2024 softball season has come to an end. We started playing late May, suffering through plenty of rain outs in the first few weeks which led to many double-headers for make-up games and then later in the summer some hot and humid nights. We finished the season with game time temperatures near 20 degrees after two weeks of wearing sweaters while we played. We had just about every conceivable type of weather, except snow (though we probably came close in the Spring and Fall).

None of our three teams won the championships - par for the course. We've won the championship two years in a row with our Wednesday team, but haven't won in the last two years. But that doesn't matter, because we're playing for fun. Winning the "title" is just a bonus. And this season was definitely a fun one.

A decade ago, I lost a lot of weight, and that made a drastic change to my game: I could run the bases faster! In 2020, after injuring my shoulder after multiple seizures, I had another drastic change - I couldn't swing the bat the way I was before, so I actually corrected my swing to what I should have been doing in the first place and started hitting the ball hard and hitting home runs. This season saw some more change: my wife and I started going to the gym and paid for personal training sessions. We definitely noticed a difference in our overall performance on the field, though mostly on defense so it's not evident from the statistics I tracked.

Tracking statistics is something I do for fun, and I think I started it in 2021 because I started hitting home runs. I didn't track in 2022, but got back into it in 2023 and 2024. I think I'm done tracking statistics, but will keep tabs on home runs because I never hit them very often before. And they're fun.

Writing this right now, not many specific memories come to mind. Overall what I'll take away from the 2024 softball season is hanging out with friends and playing a game I enjoy; but there were definitely some fun individual moments that I remember. Even just as late as last night - in my last at-bat in our first game, I wanted to pull the ball to left field - all game I had been hitting opposite to right, and figured that they were ready for me to hit there. I switched up my position at the plate and started my swing early on a perfectly level pitch and blasted a line drive to the fence. It was caught, but what I loved about it was that it was exactly where I wanted to go, and it was a power hit. On another field it might have been a line-drive home run - but this was a big field, and the fence was really high. It is what it is!

But beyond myself, my wife also had a great season. Her running was a lot better, and she's always a great hitter - placing it where she wants to. In Fall BAll this year, she hit her first ever double! I'm so proud. Defensively at 2nd base she got to more balls than ever before, I think.

Some more individual moments (pulled from my weeknotes):

• On two occasions when I was at the plate and we maxed out on home runs, I hit the ball deep but just short to prevent being called out. In one instance, I hit it straight to centre field, and hit the base of the fence; in another, I hit the top of the fence but it bounced back into the field to stay in play.
• I made some great infield plays this year. I didn't get to play infield as much as I usually do but on multiple occasions I made great line drive catches, and once playing a rare inning of shortstop I caught a ball on a bounce that everyone expected to bounce into the outfield (which it normally would have, I was just in the right position and played it perfectly; unfortunately the first baseman wasn't ready and we didn't get the out).
• On a night when I was hitting everything opposite field, and the opposing pitcher had his team shift to the right, I ripped a a grounder between third and short (on purpose).
• I had one home run that was probably 300 feet, and towered over a very high mesh netting.

So, to sum up - I had fun. My teams had fun. There were nights when the games just didn't go the way we wanted to and I was frustrated at the plate, but that happens every year. I go on a slump for a few games and then break out of it. I try not to beat myself up because it's only a game, and we're at the recreation level at that. Sometimes you just can't help it.

Here are the statistics for me - split between overall (I was able to include 2021 and 2023) and 2024 Fall Ball. (The overall stats include Fall Ball.)

One thing I'd love to do is create a baseball card, but I'm waiting on my friend to get me some pictures he took one night when he came out to watch us play.

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